CUBANEWS FROM RADIO HAVANA CUBA E-mail: rhc@radiohc.org http://www.radiohc.org The following items are taken from Radio Havana Cuba's news service for Thursday September 10, 1998. Today's stories: 1. CUBA WILL REJECT UNITED NATIONS AID WITH LABELS "MADE IN THE USA", STATES CUBAN FOREIGN MINISTRY 2. CUBAN PRESIDENT FIDEL CASTRO MEETS PRESIDENT OF THE BASQUE AUTONOMOUS REGION 3. UN UNDERSECRETARY GENERAL PRAISES THE ADVANCEMENT OF CUBAN WOMEN 4. MORE THAN 340 ECONOMIC ASSOCIATIONS WITH FOREIGN CAPITAL CURRENTLY OPERATING IN CUBA 5. CUBAN PEDIATRIC HOSPITAL RECEIVES IMPORTANT DONATION 6. CUBA AND MALAYSIA SIGN COOPERATION AGREEMENT 7. NATIONAL BALLET COMPANY TO BEGIN TOUR OF FRANCE 8. CUBA REJECTS US CERTIFICATION PROCESS CUBA WILL REJECT UNITED NATIONS AID WITH LABELS "MADE IN THE USA", STATES CUBAN FOREIGN MINISTRY Havana, September 10, RHC -- Cuba's Foreign Ministry announced today that it would reject any United Nations aid with labels "made in the USA". Foreign Ministry spokesman Alejandro Gonzalez said that though Cuba will accept the general aid from the UN's World Food Program, due to principles the island cannot allow the aid to be expressly identified as originating in the United States. The World Food Program recently called on diverse governments to help provide a 20.5 million dollar aid package for the 5 eastern Cuban provinces suffering a severe drought. The US State Department admitted last week that it was considering the petition. In general, the Cuban government has rejected any US government aid as long as the blockade in intact. The Cuban Foreign Ministry has also deplored Washington's refusal to allow a group of US business executives to travel to Cuba. The second US-Cuba Business Summit got underway Thursday in Cancun, Mexico, and was to conclude Saturday and Sunday in Havana. Gonzalez said Washington's decision does not favor the US's general interests or strategic priorities, and called the prohibition a concession to the interests of a small group of rich and extremist Cuban-Americans. CUBAN PRESIDENT FIDEL CASTRO MEETS PRESIDENT OF THE BASQUE AUTONOMOUS REGION Havana, September 10 (RHC)-- Cuban President Fidel Castro met with the President of the Basque Autonomous Region, Jose Antonio Aldanza at the headquarters of the Cuban Council of State. In a brief contact with the press after the meeting, the Cuban President referred to the current good relations between Cuba and Spain. Aldanza heads a delegation of Basque businessmen interested in setting up joint venture companies with their Cuban counterparts in several economic areas such as energy and the steel industry. During his visit to the Caribbean island, the Basque President opened a construction material plant built with a donation from the Basque government. The plant turns rubble into useful construction material. On Wednesday, Aldanza opened a business and trade office in Havana aimed at facilitating cooperation agreements between the Basque country and Cuba and encouraging joint venture projects in the Caribbean island as well as the transfer of management techniques. Also on Wednesday, the Basque visitors and Cuban authorities signed 5 agreements expanding cooperation between the two sides. The Basque delegation winds up its visit Saturday. UN UNDERSECRETARY GENERAL PRAISES THE ADVANCEMENT OF CUBAN WOMEN Havana, September 10 (RHC)-- "I think Cuba will be able to show interesting and useful experiences during a special session of the UN General Assembly in june of the year 2000 aimed at showing how much the world has done for women". The statement was made by Angela King, Undersecretary General of the United Nations currently visiting Cuba at the invitation of the Cuban Women's Federation, the FMC. During his stay on the island, King has met the Ministers of Education, Public Health, Justice, Labor, Science, Technology and the Environment. She also visited the Carlos J. Finlay Vaccine Institute and the Pedro Kouri Tropical Medicine Institute. In an interview with Cuba's Granma daily, the Undersecretary General praised as very important Cuba's remarkable rates in the incorporation of women to all sectors of the country's life including 27,6 percent of the Cuban parliament made up of women, and 65.5 percent of the country's professional technical and professional force. King said that Cuba has gained international prestige for the participation of women in all activities of society. MORE THAN 340 ECONOMIC ASSOCIATIONS WITH FOREIGN CAPITAL CURRENTLY OPERATING IN CUBA Havana, September 10 (RHC)-- More than 340 economic associations with foreign capital from more than 40 countries are currently operating in Cuba, according to the island's Foreign Investment and Economic Cooperation Minister, Ibrahim Ferradaz. The Minister said that most of them were set up after the approval of the anti-Cuban Helms Burton Law aimed at scaring off prospective investors on the island. He said that proves that the law's objective of stopping investment on the island has failed. Most of the associations are with countries like Canada, Spain, Italy, Britain, France, Holland and Mexico, covering 34 economic areas like oil prospecting and drilling, mining, nickel, telecommunications and tourism. Ferradaz noted that the promotion of foreign investment in Cuba has helped the island commercialize its goods, have access to new markets and to resources for certain productions in order to compete on the international market. The Minister of Foreign Investment said that without minimizing the effects of the Helms-Burton law, the legislation has been unable to stop the interest in investing in Cuba, proof of which is the 33 foreign investment promotion and protection agreements signed with 34 countries, most of them penned after the approval of the law. MORE THAN 100 THOUSAND PEOPLE BENEFITTED BY NEARLY 300 NEW AQUEDUCTS BUILT THIS YEAR Havana, September 10 (RHC)-- Some 120 thousand people have been benefitted with the construction of another 297 aqueducts in rural areas across the island this year. This program that Cuba has been carrying out since 1980 with the cooperation of the National Hydraulic Resources and the United Nations Childrens Fund allows the island to provide running water to communities that previously received the liquid through other means. The construction of those aqueducts gained momentum in 1994 when 104 such installations were built amidst very serious difficulties derived from the special period or economic crisis of the 1990's. Experts consider, however, that the boom of such rural aqueducts has taken place in the special period itself. The plan for 1998 includes 500 such facilities, of which 297 have so far been completed until August. CUBAN PEDIATRIC HOSPITAL RECEIVES IMPORTANT DONATION Havana, September 10 (RHC)-- Havana's Juan Manuel Marquez Pediatric Hospital received an important donation from a US delegation headed by former professional boxing champ Mohammed Ali. In the pediatric hospital that takes care of children suffering from cancer, the visitors were briefed on the negative effects that Washington's more than 35 year blockade against Cuba has on children. On this second visit to Cuba, Mohammed Ali handed over a donation worth more than one million dollars collected by the Disarmament Education Fund and Direct Relief International, two ngos from the United States. CUBA AND MALAYSIA SIGN COOPERATION AGREEMENT Havana, September 10 (RHC)-- Representatives of conglomerate of Malaysian companies signed a memorandum of understanding with Cuban enterprises on Wednesday in the asian nation. The agreement is aimed at boosting trade in the biotechnology and the pharmaceutical industry. The signing ceremony, which took place in the Malaysian city of Johor, was attended by Cuban Deputy Foreign Trade Minister, Orlando Hernandez and the head of the Malaysian State of Johor Bajaru, where a Cuban delegation is scheduled to visit Sudaki Technological University. The memorandum provides for the two parts to identify principal projects for possible cooperation. NATIONAL BALLET COMPANY TO BEGIN TOUR OF FRANCE Havana, September 10 (RHC)-- The Cuban National Ballet company founded and directed by prima ballerina assoluta Alicia Alonso, will begin its 1998-1999 dance season in Paris with special performances in the Champs Elysee Theater. The Cuban ballet company returns to Paris after a 14 year absence. It will perform classics including Swan Lake and Giselle. The National Ballet company will perform in the French capital from September 22nd through the 29th, and will then tour other French and Swiss cities. CUBA REJECTS US CERTIFICATION PROCESS Havana, September 10 (RHC)-- Cuba has rejected the US unilateral certification process in the fight against drugs. The Vice President of the Cuban Parliament's Foreign Relations Commission, Ramon Pez Ferro stated in Moscow, Russia that such action violates the sovereignty of nations. Pez Ferro is taking part in the World Parliamentary Conference which is underway in the Russian capital. Addressing a commission on the topic, the Cuban official described the certification process as inapropiate, whether unilateral or multilateral, and added that its time to stop blaming poor Third World countries for the consumption of narcotics in the right First World. Though Cuba is neither a producer nor a consumer of drugs, said Pez Ferro, the Cuban authorities take every necessary measure to prevent drug trafficking from using the island as a stopover. 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